Why chat activates per device

The most asked chat question: "my friend has chat, my app does not — is something broken?" No. Chat activates per device as the encryption rollout completes, and that sentence is the honest answer. This page explains why it works that way, because the reason is better than the usual rollout excuses.

Keys belong to devices

In real end-to-end encryption, messages are sealed for specific devices: your phone holds its own keys, publishes its own key bundle, and other phones seal messages that only your phone can open. An account does not hold keys — a device does. So "does chat work for you?" is genuinely a question about a device: this phone, with its keys set up, ready to seal and unseal. That is not a limitation bolted onto the rollout; it is what being end-to-end means.

What activation involves

• Your device generates and registers its encryption keys, including the fresh one-time keys that let new conversations start securely.
• The rollout reaches accounts and devices in stages, so the system earns confidence with real traffic before carrying everyone's.
• When your device is ready, chat appears — announced by the app, with nothing for you to configure.

What it means day to day

Two phones at different stages are both behaving correctly — your friend's device has activated, yours has not yet. A new phone starts its own activation, because keys do not ride along with a signed-in account; your wallet follows your account from sign-in, while conversations follow the encryption design. And nothing about money waits for chat: transfers, requests, and every other payment work regardless of where chat stands on your device.